Description
Book SynopsisAn ethnography analyzing Indias class of transnational information technology professionals and their influential ideas about what it means to be Indian.
Trade Review“
Appropriately Indian is a wonderful book, which provides crucial background about India’s rising image in the world and at home. Smitha Radhakrishnan covers notions of caste, class, and prestige, as well as the transnational character of the privileged knowledge workers she discusses. At the same time, does not portray these professionals only in terms of privilege. Her intimate descriptions of people’s lives are full of dilemmas and heartaches. The passages on traditional marriage expectations and modern individualistic drives are particularly illuminating.”—
A. Aneesh, author of
Virtual Migration: The Programming of Globalization“With her soberly critical ethnographic eye, Smitha Radhakrishnan proves a delightfully judicious guide to what happens when class and culture get transnationally stretched. Refusing both the hype that surrounds the world of India’s global IT class and a simple ideology critique, she gives us a vivid portrait of everyday lives lived at a leading edge of globalization.”—
William T. S. Mazzarella, University of Chicago
“
Appropriately Indian is a highly readable, richly detailed, and insightful contribution to the literature on transnationalism and contributes to the social sciences in moving the referent from the state to everyday strategies of identity.” -- Unna Lassiter * International Social Science Review *
“Smitha Radhakrishnan gives us a textured account of members of a new transnational class represented by India’s skilled knowledge professionals who have indeed played a leading role in the global IT industry. Her wide-ranging interviews reveal the ways in which they craft their identities by bridging Indian cultural practices with Western work practices and values.... I find this book to be timely, engaging, and a valuable insight into a group that belongs to a growing class of transnational professionals.” -- Indermohan Virk * Contemporary Sociology *
“This book is a strong rebuttal to the popular argument that neoliberal economic policies have opened the doors of opportunity for all. Instead
it offers important insights into how local cultures and internal hierarchies shape the nature of cultural and economic globalization.... [T]his
is an exceptionally well written and theoretically rich book that will be a great addition to graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses on
transnationalism, globalization, culture, development, sociological theories, or South Asian studies.” -- Jaita Talukdar * American Journal of Sociology *
“
Appropriately Indian is an innovative sociological study of Indian IT professionals, mainly women, and the cultural and social changes in post-liberalization India that are revealed by their narratives about their work and personal experiences…. the monograph is a must-read for scholars of contemporary south Asia, globalization, and the sociology of work, class, and gender.” -- Carol Upadhya * International Review of Social History *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction: On Background 1
1. Privilege: Situating India's Transnational Class 25
2. Global/Indian: Cultural Politics in the IT Workplace 53
3. Merit: Ideologies of Achievement in the Knowledge Economy 87
4. Individuals: Narratives of Embedded Slaves 115
5. Family: Gendered "Balance" and the Everyday Production of the Nation 145
6. Religion: When the Private is Transnational 173
Conclusion: Apolitical Politics 199
Notes 207
Bibliography 215
Index 227
